Bayosphere

World Technology Award:Media & Journalism

Abd the winner is… [Sound of envelope tearing. Squeal of joy!]:

Dan Gillmor, Business and Technology Columnist , San Jose Mercury News!

Congratulations, Dan!

I never thought the Kerry/Edwards ticket would do something stupid enough to cost them votes in San Francisco. But it happened.

Yesterday, Edwards stood with the hotel workers union and told of his support for the strike.

The strike that has become a tremendous quality of life issue in downtown, including *residential* areas of downtown, where there are all day and all night parades of shouting strikers, pounding on makeshift steel drums and tom-toms, private amplifiers shouting near-obscenities heard for blocks around.

These are Kerry/Edwards people!

Support the lock-out, encourage your unemployed friends to take permanent replacement worker jobs, and let’s sock it to these rabble-rousing union troublemakers!

And re-elect George Bush, to prevent a vicious radicalization of our labor laws.

I’m concerned about the security of stuff being passed around on the internet while signing up, logging in, etc. And unfortunately, not much attention is being paid to it 🙁

Nowadays, there are more and more sites and services coming up that offer a lot of fabulous (in each and everyone’s opinion) things for free. Stuff like Blogger, Orkut, Flickr, FeedBurner, …

However, AFAIK, none of these sites use HTTPS or other forms of secure communication while doing a sign-up or logging into their site. Understandably, they aren’t passing around the password in plain text, but I’d be much more happier to see HTTPS for a start.

The issue becomes slightly compounded because I’m responsible for what I’m (supposedly) putting up on such sites and if the access is not secure, how can one say with certainty.

An entry on my blog @ First, I’ve filled up a dummy email address in the required section ‘cos I don’t know if the comments section are subject to spam email harvest. Anyway, coming to the issue at hand.

I’m concerned about the security of stuff being passed around while signing up, logging in, etc. And unfortunately, not much attention is being paid to it 🙁

Nowadays, there are more and more sites and services coming up that offer a lot of fabulous (in each and everyone’s opinion) things for free. Stuff like Blogger, Orkut, Flickr, FeedBurner, …

However, AFAIK, none of these sites use HTTPS or other forms of secure communication while doing a sign-up or logging into their site. Understandably, they aren’t passing around the password in plain text, but I’d be much more happier to see HTTPS for a start.

The issue becomes slightly compounded because I’m responsible for what I’m (supposedly) putting up on such sites and if the access is not secure, how can one say with certainty.

An entry on my blog @ http://tinyurl.com/5j3u9 talks about this. My comments on Evan’s blog (of Blogger fame) is @ http://tinyurl.com/6q7sv.talks about this.

query, All the noise getting to you, is it? Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, wouldn’t you say?

First, now you have some idea of what most people on this blog think of your rather strident, mindless, banging-pot-and-pan-sounding posts. 😉

The difference between you and the strikers is that they have a real need, where all you want is attention. So here, consider this post a gift for your own very peculiar brand of attention-deficit disorder.

Second, it’s those hotel workers that keep San Francisco’s economy stoked. What’s San Francisco’s #1 enterprise sector? In case you don’t know, it’s tourism.

Why should those who are largely responsible for quietly and efficiently keeping comfortable the millions of tourists who pour into San Francisco every year not gain an increase in benefits? How many tourist bathrooms have you cleaned lately? Might I suggest a dose of three months or so in the shoes of those strikers to help you regain any humility (one of Jesus main qualities) that you might have once had.

Perhaps the noise might wake some neighborhoods up (pun intended) to the problems that lowly paid hospitality workers suffer as they help keep those neighbors property values elevated.

Lastly, what continues to amuse me about your posts is how they have the same general tenor of the Bush message – i.e. lots of sloganeering and emotional hot-button jabs with little understanding of the real depth of issues (just like your post today).

I’m actually beginning to feel pity for those that buy into the Pavlovian prompts that Bush and his people put out there. It’s the kind of pity that comes while watching people gladly (whilst blindly, from pure emotion) show how inherently unthinking they are as they continue to embarass themselves – not to mention their species.

At first, some of the stuff you put up was just plain annoying, but now that your pattern is clear, it’s come to resemble the desperation we’re seeing from the underdeveloped forebrain types in the Bush camp.

So, please don’t stop posting as it’s fun (and easy) to counter the kind of mindless spin you put up here. Kinda makes my day from time-to-time. 😉

Dan — I would like to thank you for allowing this open-thread debate on your web site. Please keep our trolling “freedom” alive –Thanks

Vibrissae — I think you misunderappreciate the power of sending multi-level messages (mixed messages) to the sub-cortical brain layers.

It may not matter what the thinking part of the brain says. The other two parts (limbic and reptilian) cast their votes too. In some people, the votes of the lower brain parts outweigh that of the thinking part.

By the time Nov. 2 rolls around, we will have forgotten the substance of the debates and all that will remain is the room-spinning buzz of the campaign ads.

Practice the following mixed messages every day from now until Nov. 2. Eventually your cerebral cortex will cave in and the lower brain stems will take over:

Sad-damn Whose-sane?
Sad-damn Whose-sane?

Mixed Messa Jess
Mixed Messa Jess

Liberal Flip Flopper (arms wide open, flap ’em like a bird))
Liberal Flip Flopper (arms wide open)

Those who HATE us
Those who HATE us

You can run, but who will save ya?
You can run, but who will save ya?

George, george … he’s our boy-MAN
If he can’t save ya, no one can

Cheers

Sudhir Parasuram: You should be more worried about what happens to the data once it’s on the server than about someone eavesdropping on it in transit. Especially if the site uses Microsoft’s web server.

The President closed the deal. The election is over.

Really, query? Who did he buy for this election?

Yeah the president closed the deal…on his condo in Crawford Texas where he will spend rest of his life in his bathrobe muttering “I did not make any mistakes”.

BTW did ya hear Kerry say “Nano-second”? Gotta love a guy who knows enough to say that. Now that is a president who understands science!

Unfortunately, it won’t be over until the swing lady on the U.S. Supreme Court sings.

(No one is saying Sandra Day O’Conner is fat.)

Currently, it looks like 2004 will be a replay of the year 2000 election. Too many swing states, too many questionable voting machines, etc. –our democracy system is broken.

Quote “Sudhir Parasuram: You should be more worried about what happens to the data once it’s on the server than about someone eavesdropping on it in transit. Especially if the site uses Microsoft’s web server.”

I would be VERY worried if it was a microsoft based Web server. As a matter of fact I’ve had to format and restore many high end and very important Windows Based Servers because of Microsoft’s sorry security.

fyyiia ahaizi.

The problem advocates of verifiable voting will encounter — whatever their political persuasion — is that the absence of proof of an invalid election outcome does not mean that (a) the election results were valid, or (b) that they will be valid next election even if they were. Even if you believe in the fairy tales like Santa, the Easter Bunny and honest political parties, our experience with computer hardware and software for the last half-century has to make prudent people question the concept of bug-free systems. And, since every election involves reprogramming of the ballots, it’s going to be an unending threat.

So, we have the risk of undetected (or at least unremediable) malicious destruction or alteration of results; the risk of unintentional loss or contamination through inadvertent design and programming issues; and the risk of subsequent errors by the election officials responsible for this complex process at either the central or local sites. There is no possible recovery with any assurance of integrity; no backup method of verifying the voters’ will; and no effective means of prevention because of the closed nature of the code.

Tell me again what’s wrong with paper? Admitting that no system is absolutely proof against errors and tampering, why in heaven’s name do we quit what has generally worked well for centuries in favor of a demonstrably seriously flawed experiment?

Still, we will have the political drones argue that verifiable elections are unneccessary. I can’t wait for them to tell us again why honest elections are a threat to the nation.

Hulk not happy with either Puny Human candidates.
So Hulk enter presidential race.
Hulk use “electronic” voting and so far SMASHING Bush and Kerryt.
See Hulk’s “campaign site” at:
http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/halloween_webcam
where you can view the votes and cast your own ballot.

Hulk for President! 😉

What a lot of people seem to forget is that a voting system (electronic or not) has two somewhat independant purposes:

1. Tally the vote accurately and quickly.

2. Convince everyone (including the sorest of sore losers) that the results are correct.

It’s perfectly feasible for an all- electronic system to do the first (although Diebold doesn’t inspire confidence). It’s effectively impossible for an all- electronic system to do the second. There are just too many ways to gimmick the system.

Diebold seems to be trying to *minimize* the confidence that people have in their systems. I mean, really, what more could they do to destroy confidence in their own machines?

Prediction: A massive Kerry victory in November will be blamed on the voting machines …

The media that plays along deserves rebuke. And the strange silence from the pulpits about unethical and illegal actions also delegitimizes their claims as defenders of anything but hypocrisy.

“You expect this kind of sleazy stuff from the White House” – Is that all that you can say about this?

Why in hell should we expect, or accept, or tolerate this kind of behavior from the chief of state? If we don’t have as a minimum standard of expectation that elected officials obey the laws they’re sworn to uphold, aren’t we acknowledging an ethical entropy that now sets a new and lower standard?

Looking beyond the instant issue, the aggregation of scandals petty and major is appalling, and should offend Republicans and Democrats alike. Is the current administration now the model for future governments? Increasingly, the reform and independent parties, and even (shudder) the libertarians are sounding more profoundly democratic and ethical than the traditional stewards of the political process.

Yes, the media should be ashamed, and so should other elected officials, regulatory and law enforcement agencies. If their passivity is the result of public apathy to corruption, what future do we have to look forward to? Responsible journalists should be expressing outrage and encouraging a voter backlash for the sake of our nation. Dan, you’re right to criticize, but wrong to shrug off the behavior from the leader of the free world.

This is just the latest in the degrading of news. As a 20 year veteran of the networks, I know how often a VNR (video news release) handout will be used as a free source of footage. Rarely, a whole story will be adapted. In my experience the pharmaceutical companies are most successful in placing material. This collusion between corporate PR (whose people gleefully count the free appearances of their messages) and TV professionals is deplorable. But I agree that we expect this by now from the party that will try any dirty trick. It doesn’t mean we shrug it off. It means we work for a regime change.

Well, being that this is the second time one of these has been snagged in 2004 – and the second with Karen Ryan “reporting,” it’s safe to say that while we’re all out here “getting it,” the government still thinks this is a good idea. It’s one thing to pitch a story to a news organization – it’s another one to use VNRs and not have them labeled as such. Media organizations who are compliant to let these things run should be held just as accountable.

The Democrats’ nominee for the Presidency in 2000, Al Gore, was a state-paid “journalist”, as an officer in Vietnam.

Why no railing against *him* as having been some hack government press agent distorting the war in Southeast Asia?

Hypocrisy, thy name is the Democrat Party.

This won’t be enough to turn around the millions of new voters who have registered for no reason other than to bring Bush down. Pollsters aren’t measuring the impact of this new-found voter pool.

If you travel and talk to people it’s clear that a lot of people who would normally vote Republican are very wary of Bush.

I make it a point to talk to these folks; the level of dissatidfaction that they exhibit with Bush is striking.

I even know several evangelical Christians who have had enough of Bush. They’re voting for Kerry with their eyes closed because they have a general feeling of disgust with what Bush has done in areas other than Iraq – and they’re tiring of that very quickly as well. This President is a war-mongering fool, with no insight into any grand world vision except the one he thinks is divined by Scripture – this is scaring a lot of rational religious folk. Ask around, a lot of evangelicals who don’t want the Rapture accelerated are afraid of Bush – they like living in peace.

This election is really going to surprise the pundits and pollsters, as Kerry walks away with a victory.

Do Bush and his cronies really think that reciting a stupid mantra over and over again will work the way it used to? They nead to read the Cluetrain Manifesto, and apply it to their political campaign.

The irony is, if the Republicans really had a “conversation” with the American public that was anything more than the empty-headed sloganeering that we are currently witnessing, they would be rejected out-of-hand. The record is transparently bad for Bush.

The only thing that makes it seem as if he’s popular are the screened crowds that he plays to.

This is natural selection at play folks – and the Bushies are on their way to extinction…bet on it.

Never underestimate the power of lies on television. I find this a distubing trend, and I hope the FCC will be looking closely at his television stations over the next few days. This is one of the surprising things about America, you can get fined $500, 000 for showing Janet Jackson flashing for 1 second, show a partisan movie attacking a presidential candidate for an hour before the election, and you can get away with it. The idea isn’t to persuade these viewers to vote for Bush, the idea is to get them to think its not worth voting for Kerry.

Oh the outrage.
A corporation backs, finances and markets a film by Michael Moore. The media helps promote it.
Talk about abuse of power.
🙂

Weren’t these the same guys who refused to air an episode of Nightline? The episode in question was a list of the names of soldiers killed during the Iraq conflict. And this broadcaster was offended enough by the “message” of that program (that war means death, and not just of faceless enemies) to keep its viewers from seeing it.

Is this what they mean by managed news?

George, if Disney (which canceled its distribution deal for Moore’s film) ordered its ABC affiliates to air it two nights before the election, that would also be an outrageous abuse, too.

George,

They’re not at all the same.

Fahrenheit 9/11 was a movie exhibited in privately-owned theaters. You had to pay to see it and have the voluntary will to do so.

This anti-Kerry film, however, will be pushed out over the public’s airwaves into their homes as forced programming by a corporate entity.

The former is an example of capitalism and freedom of speech in action. The latter is fascist force-feeding, and definitely an abuse of corporate power.

For the record, I don’t like it, no matter who does it.
And, it doesn’t always take the form of overt orders/actions. You have situations like Soros for the left and the Diabold exec favoring Bush and influencing their organizations.

Fasten your seatbelts Folks.

The only question now is what will they do to retain power. Even with a Kerry Win on Election Day.

Hopefully, they will just ride off into the sunset with their ill gotten gains. Where they can begin planning the next opportunity to rip off America.

Jason…yes, not a one-to-one comparison. But, free publicity is priceless and a great influencer. And by playing the most inflammatory scenes over TV as news clips, etc., they might as well have just broadcast the dang thing. The end effect is the same.

I despise W., and think he’s leading us tho the land of the jackbooted thugs.

However, Kerry doesn’t particularly ring my bell, either.

As I live in Texas, where my vote doesn’t count anyway, I’m voting for Badnarik, the Libertarian. It’s not a classic protest vote, y’know, anybody but this guy, because I agree with the libertarian policies. (I don’t need to be protected from myself, thanks.)

I’m trying to get people to consider Badnarik, if they’re uncomfortable with Bush and Kerry is too liberal. So, If you live in a non-swing state, and you really value your liberties, please consider voting Libertarian.

So an organization decides to bash Kerry. Exactly how is this bad? How does this compare to the organizations that are bashing Bush or Nader?
( or the ones ignoring Badnarik … )

Chris…I despise W., and think he’s leading us tho the land of the jackbooted thugs. However, Ker
ry doesn’t particularly ring my bell, either.
—–
Boy, you hit the nut on the head for me. George himself doesn’t scare me but his people really do. And Kerry, just no way. Nothin there!

“So an organization decides to bash Kerry. Exactly how is this bad? How does this compare to the organizations that are bashing Bush or Nader?”

This isn’t an “organization” — this is one of the largest media conglomerates in the U.S., and it’s forcing its affiliates to show an unabashedly biased hack job on Kerry in prime time instead of regular programming. Oh, and on “public” airwaves.

Big difference between that and anti-Bush organizations like MoveOn that have to pay for airtime (if the networks will even sell it to them).

Sponsors of campaign finance reform brought this down on us all. So far, the abuse of media power has been largely by Left leaning liberal journalists. They operate outside the boundaries of campaign finance reforms, while severe restraints on free speech silent moderate and conservative voices.

Buying your own TV stations and spinning the news is about the only unregulated activity left.

It’s time for the Left to take a bite in the arse.

What do you expect? With the campaign finance reform fiasco all sorts of money is creatively polluting the system. Look at George Soros! How much money has he put in? And wasn’t Soros a big sponsor or lobbiest for CFR?

I can’t believe you people! You are hilarious. I am a lifelong resident of Massachusetts and a recovering Democrat. I have registered as unenrolled because the democrat dictatorship in Massachusetts is afraid of terms like Independent, and commissar Kennedy doesn’t like “independent” thinking people. Kerry has done nothing for this state but take his paychecks as Attorney General, Lt. Governor, and now senator. Actually, I should be grateful that his record is so sparse you can hear the crickets chirping! When you lefties figure out that 09/11 was worse than Pearl Harbor and an attack on the United States, an act of war, maybe you’ll smarten up. Well, ask the French or Germans and if they give you permission then you may be allowed to think of 9/11 as an act of aggression by evil minded idiots looking for 72 virgins to make them feel good. Just like the Japanese realized that they woke a sleeping giant after Pearl Harbor, so too will those Islamic pigs! And for anyone of you losers to call the President a Liar, and think that Kerry is the epitome of honesty, well your vote should be taken away because it is you who is the Liar and definately can’t handle such an awesome duty like voting! The President will win re-election because I have talked to more than a few democrats as well as republicans that know what Kerry is. In fact, I believe he should be tried for war crimes since he admitted to committing atrocities while in Vietnam! Our hero shot thos “Viet Cong” 15 year old boys in the back. Now there’s a hero! Good luck, and I’ll pray for you folks, you need all the help you can get.

Lets also remember that Moore’s 911 was actually distributed by a foreign corporation. Lions Gate in Canada. Talk about foreign influence on an election. lets get all the propaganda out there and let the people of America decide. Either way both sides will be dissappointed and will have to work together to get something done or all Americans will look like idiots.

I must say that Kerry lost my vote. I will vote for Nader. I like Kerry but do not like those that back him. The straw was those in the wacko left that claim (it got some mainstream press) that Bush was wired on the last debate. First these guys are crazy, second Bush does come across ok in debates so even though Kerry was better. To suggest that he was wired is insane and I won’t support someone who counts these people amoung his supporters. It is the wacko left that will loose it for Kerry. My vote changed!!!

I do not watch TV. I am immune to corporate power abuses. I will not be assimilated!

If I weren’t an American citizen, I would say whomever believes the lies spouted by the candidates’ groupies deserve moron that is elected.

Alas, I am a American citizen, so all I can do is feel sorry for my country.

I must say that Kerry lost my vote. I will vote for Nader. I like Kerry but do not like those that back him. The straw was those in the wacko left that claim (it got some mainstream press) that Bush was wired on the last debate. First these guys are crazy, second Bush does come across ok in debates so even though Kerry was better. To suggest that he was wired is insane and I won’t support someone who counts these people among his supporters. It is the wacko left that will loose it for Kerry. My vote changed!!!

So you’re not voting for someone based on the fact that you don’t like some of the people who don’t like the other guy? And you’re switching your vote to Nader??? Oh no – no wacko lefties or extremists among Nader supporters, no siree! Every single solitary person who supports Nader is rational and thinks exactly as you do about everything, so you should by all means vote for him!
And why do you assume anyone trying to discredit Bush is automatically a Kerry supporter?
Ah but I see you’re in Washington, so your vote won’t matter, anyway. That’s a state Kerry already has sewn up.

Sorry – can’t resist one more response:
Our hero shot thos “Viet Cong” 15 year old boys in the back. Now there’s a hero! Good luck, and I’ll pray for you folks, you need all the help you can get.

Whatever the facts are behind this
(and from what I understand he chased one of these guys in the jungle and shot him dead in the back *after* he had been attacking boats with a rocket launcher . . .I’m not military, but that just sounds like good soldiering to me)
The fact that the Viet Cong soldier may have been 15 (though I don’t see how anyone could possibly know) has little bearing. He was an adult soldier on a battlefield. You can’t retroactively and xenophobically apply modern American standards of “youth” to enemy soldiers killing our guys with rocket launchers in Vietnam 35 years ago. Furthermore, no one cares. How many enemy soldiers have they Bush Administration killed? You think all those guys who are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are over 15? Hint: they are two of the countries with the youngest average age in the world. Afghan warlords start recruiting around age 12. Aside from that, how many innocents have the Bush Administration killed? How many Americans at home
are dead and dying because of his policies?
It’s funny all the right can come up with to try and smear Kerry are heroic acts performed during his *voluntary* tours of Vietnam *35 years ago*> Jeez, you think Rove would be able to dig up some stuff that was more recent and that had a bit more punch.

Oh and one more to bob the racist:
killing enemy soldiers in a war does not constitute a “war crime”, brain trust. And no, it doesn’t matter what age the enemy soldier is. Perhaps you should study up a bit on international law before trying to use legal terms and state who should be “tried” for “what”.

(Yes, I realise I’m likely spending too much time responding to someone who uses sentences like:
“And for anyone of you losers to call the President a Liar, and think that Kerry is the epitome of honesty, well your vote should be taken away because it is you who is the Liar and definitely can’t handle such an awesome duty like voting!”)

“Oh and one more to bob the racist:” — Charles

I’m curious charles, what in god’s name made you call bob a racist? A convient slur because you didn’t agree with him?

As far as war crimes and trials and such, didn’t your friend Mr. Kerry at one point testify to witnessing and/or taking part in ‘war crimes’ in his anti-vietnam war furvor? As an officer, even if he just witnessed them and did nothing to stop them or further report them up the chain of command he is, in fact, guilty of said war crimes.

“Just like the Japanese realized that they woke a sleeping giant after Pearl Harbor, so too will those Islamic pigs!”

Technically, perhaps I should have said “religious bigot”, but it is a fine line. OK, I concede that if he is discussing the specific 9/11 terrorists, they were both “Islamic” and pigs – but the phrase paints with a broad brush.

Kerry is not my friend, and I have no idea what he testified about back in the 70s – but shooting an enemy on the battlefield (the example given)is not defined as a war crime under any of the international law instruments I’ve ever studied.

Gentle People

Mr. Kerry testified to Congress that, at a veterans’ event he attended, other veterans told him of their eye-witness experiences in Viet Nam.

That is significantly different than “testify[ing] to witnessing and/or taking part in ‘war crimes'”.

For those interested in Sinclair Broadcast Group, there business contracts are online – including a number of employment agreements:

http://contracts.onecle.com/alpha/6504.shtml

I don’t really care for how this flick is being distributed by Sinclair, but the Moore movie has certainly been forced down people’s throats for months and months – even when many parts of it have been discredited. It seems like the Sinclair move is an attempt at equal time.

Al: “the Moore movie has certainly been forced down people’s throats for months and months”

Al, could you define “forced” used in the given context?

Dan, Congrats, you earned it.

Almost doon with “We the Media” (for the second time). Whats next?

Bob

A resounding victory for the President.

The Kerry/Edwards handlers made an enormous miscalculation spinning Tuesday’s disasterous performance by Edwards against Cheney into a “win”.

Bush didn’t perform well last week. Bush’s people were honest enough to admit it, and graciously to give Kerry the nod on his style. (As partisans on the other side of the aisle, they couldn’t give him anything but an abject failure “F” for substance).

However, when Edwards was bested on style, substance, experience, manners, gravitas … the Kerry/Edwards people just wouldn’t have it. They twisted, distorted and outright LIED about the night. They tried pathetically to turn the subject to the accuracy of Cheney’s rememberances, and away from Edward’s lies, distortions, naivete and wrong-headedness about the vital issues facing this country.

Now, Kerry/Edwards handlers have squandered whatever credibility they and their candidate had established last week. And this morning, no one is listening to their case that Kerry “won” last night.

Fairly, they could make a better case for Kerry last night than Edwards last Tuesday.

However, Bush would have captured the night precisely had he spontaneously *yelled* at Kerry, “You can’t handle the truth! Just kidding, folks. I know I’m no Jack Nicholson. But, Senator Kerry, I think some one needs to tell you, you’re no Tom Cruise. And you look pretty ridiculous trying to play Tom Cruise. This isn’t a movie. This is the vital business of the nation. And the fact is, America has seen me and what I stand for. It is your campaign that’s trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people.”

query, I have referred the folks at SETI to you. They’re looking for life from another planet. Assuming that you are a life-form, you are certainly from another planet.

So far: Three debates; three losses for Cheney/Bush! Three clear wins Kerry/Edwards!

Charlie, you are in error. SETI is looking for extra-terrestrial *intelligence* — that’s what the “I” stands for.

And in case anyone is interested over there in the USA, the results so far in the Australian federal election (held Saturday, 9th October) have shown a decisive win (and increase in majority) for the incumbent government, led by Prime Minister John Howard. See http://vtr.aec.gov.au/ for the data, or any Australian newspaper for commentary.

TFBW, I’m sooo embarrassed to have, in my haste, made that error. To make amends, I made certain to carefully split these infinitives.

The only rational explanation for query’s apparent hallucinations is that he works for the Bush campaign. Their after-debate spinners didn’t even do as good a job of twisting reality as query.

Bush did much better than the first debate, but he still didn’t have answers for some questions, refused to answer others, and lost his cool a number of times before he finally calmed down about halfway through.

Shouting over a moderator until he lets you talk, even though you’ve already had *two* chances to respond? Berating audience members? Not very presidential.

Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell said it was one of Kerry’s worst debate performances ever, and a serious loss against Bush.

Matthews and Mitchell! Leading lights from the same camp as all you loonie left lapdogs of tech-phoney demagogue Dan Gillmor.

Spin that! All you’re doing is regurgitating McAulliffe. Pathetic and sad — the attitudes of losers.

Matthews on line poll says Kerry ran away with it Pres. Bush 37% vs Sen. Kerry with 63%.

A more scientic poll is likely Gallup calling it almost a draw with Kerry a couple of points ahead, but doing better with the independents.

Phil, you are uninformed and naive.

McAullife has stated quite plainly that (i) in coordination with the Kerry campaing, the DNC has withdrawn advertising spending for Kerry in as many as eight *former* states of contention and (ii) he personally authorized spending significant sums generating fake “grass roots” online poll responses taking the ridiculous line of the Democrats that their guys “win” no matter what the true outcomes. The instructions about how and where to “click” went out even before the debate!

Funny, though, that you can’t dispute the citation of Matthews and Mitchell, because if you were watching, you saw their blatant admission that Kerry blew it big-time.

I could quote hundreds of less far Left, centrist and Right commentators who’ve said the same thing.

But for Matthews and Mitchell, it’s *one* for Kerry, *two* for Bush/Cheney.

Back to my original point.

The Democrats aren’t willing to accurately self-score, not even within a *mile* of reality.

Why can’t Kerry and his pals admit, one for their guy, a draw for the second debate (you can at least argue *that* with a straight face, but not a Kerry victory), and as far as Edwards is concerned, who cares about Edwards? He’ll be a resident of the Executive Building, not the White House — as uninvolved in the day-to-day as Walter Mondale. So what if Edwards is no Dick Cheney?

But no, the spin meisters have jumped the railroad tracks, veering so far from reality they’re taking a big risk:

After Bush trounces Kerry next week, as the trend line suggests he will, who in the weeks following will even believe that Kerry won the *first* debate, as all his handlers are spinning so outlandishly about the awful performances that followed?

Only thing I can say about America’s election campaign is even if Kerry is now ahead by one, two, three points in the polls, it is still very possible that Bush wins the Electoral College without winning the popular vote. Bill Clinton did it and right now Bush has a fairly good lead in the electoral college. Well see.

Read it and weep folks.

Rasmussen at noon Eastern today:

“Saturday October 09, 2004–The latest Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll sho
ws President George W. Bush with 50% of the vote and Senator John Kerry with 46%. Today is the first time all year that either candidate has hit the 50% mark in our survey.”

Kerry has collapsed back to pre-first debate levels, and George Bush is at his highest poll ratings ever this year, as the undecideds have broken for him decisively.

BIG NEWS:

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1167782004

It was rigged! Sadaam had France in it’s pocket! I wonder if any French politicians will go to jail.

“Charles Duelfer, the CIA’s chief weapons hunter, recovered documents from the old Iraqi ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) and Saddam’s Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) showing that as early as May 2002, the Iraqi dictator received assurances that France would veto any US bid for UN military action against him.

The degree of intimacy that existed between Iraq and France may vindicate British and American leaders who believed that Jacques Chirac, the French president, was never open to arguments for removing Saddam.”

So it doesn’t mean that Bush is right to have gone in, but it does mean two things: 1) that the utopian concept of the UN isn’t really true because members act in their own interest, (especially when bribed!), and 2) that Kerry is wrong – either because he (and the Libs) are na